Condesa

[non descript]

As the good ship Condesa has more than a little support, it seemed fair to collect the various postings into one thread under her name.

Built in 1944 by Hawthorne Leslie & Co Ltd., she was the sister to Rippingham Grange. She was sold for scrap in 1962 and broken up at La Spezia.

There is an excellent picture of her in the gallery, posted by Emmanuel Makarios and the link to it is here ( http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/46278) and furthermore, attached to that gallery posting is an equally excellent text by Tom Haywood and I have taken the liberty of doing a cut& paste of his worthwhile text for the benefit of us all:

The "Condesa" was the sister ship to the "Rippingham Grange" but was owned by the Furness-Houlder Argentine Lines. She had a vast reefer capacity at 473,000 c.f.R.
In March 1951 she was the first overseas ship to call at the port of Nelson since WWII and loaded a part cargo of apples.
In the same year (October) she took supplies to Hong Kong from New Zealand for the United Nations troops in Korea.
The shortage of export meat from the Argentine from 1950 brought her a great deal on to the New Zealand and Australia services.
Like her sister she was especially designed for the River Plate Service and her short length made it less difficult for her to negotiate the river's shallow twisting reaches. The farthest she had been upriver was to the meat port of Rosario which is 310 miles inland.

[Monket]

Not a company man but I joined the "Condesa" in Bordeaux in 1962. She had lain there for many months because of a dispute over the cargo, we discharged in Valencia and then took her to La Spezia for scrapping.

[jgazzard]

Monket I also joined the Condesa in Bordeaux in March 62.
The full story of that eprisode was that she was due to be scrapped and had one final cargo of oranges from South Africa. Some of these were discharged in France where she was inspected by some blokes and chartered on a monthly rate to sit in Bordeaux storing some 4000 tons of cow beef.
The reason for this was that the refrigerated storage at a big American transit base in Biordeaux was being expanded so they needed the meat out of the way while they did this work. The anticipated time for this job was 3 months.
For some reason, they did the job but did not put the meat back into storage but kept it in Condesa for 22 months.
Finally, the cargo was sold to the Spanish government and delivered to Valencia, Alicante, Cadiz and Santander. then we went to Gibraltar where excess fuel was discharged and then on to Spezia where she was to be scrapped.
The master for this trip was Denis Parkin and the mate Norman Trevethan. I was second mate. I am having a blonde moment as I cannot remember who else sailed on that trip.
Many of the crew were shipped home by rail from Santander and a small number of us finished the trip to Spezia and then flew home.

Regards John

[non descript]

Thanks John for the excellent write-up - I have collected the postings together and made a new thread for this fine ship.

Regards
Mark

[B Parkin]

My sister and I spent several happy months living on board the Condesa as small children when she was in Bordeaux for a protracted period (not quite sure why). Our father, Captain Denis Parkin brought the family to stay and we had a whale of a time. I can recall that ship as if it were yesterday - it was in fact 1960!

[marinero]

My sister and I spent several happy months living on board the Condesa as small children when she was in Bordeaux for a protracted period (not quite sure why). Our father, Captain Denis Parkin brought the family to stay and we had a whale of a time. I can recall that ship as if it were yesterday - it was in fact 1960!
Hi B.Parkin.

I worked with your Dad in Houlder's Leadenhall St. Office for quite a while. He was head of Personnel.

Regards (Thumb)

[R58484956]

Greetings B Parkin and a warm welcome to SN. Bon voyage.

[B Parkin]

Thanks for your reply. It's great that there are people like you who remember my dad. He died so young - at 56 - and I would have loved to have time to garner his amazing collection of stories from his days at sea from the age of 15. He brought us into the Leadenhall Street offices many times over the years and I remember very clearly the convivial atmosphere of purpose and focus. Later on, the terrible Royston Grange tragedy cost us a number of close family friends and was shattering for Denis and colleagues. But he had a good life full of pleasure in people, the sea and vessels - so I guess he was in the right job!

I am delighted with this website - after 50 years, I finally know why the Condesa was stuck in Bordeaux with a cargo of frozen meat for all that time which gave my mum, sister and me a great 18 month stay in the sun!